2muchcoffeeman
Well-Known Member
I went to bed. Apparently I made the right decision.
-
Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Access to private conversations with other members.
- Fewer ads.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Go fast, turn left (and also right): The 2025 Running Motorsports Thread
- Thread starter 2muchcoffeeman
- Start date
PCLoadLetter
Well-Known Member
Bubbler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2004
- Messages
- 25,683
In a weird way, most forms of open-wheel motorsports have a reliability problem that also relates to costs.
They're too damn reliable.
Gone are the days where someone might dominate, but lose the race anyway because they blew an engine or had some other failure. If Mario Andretti raced these days, he'd be a four-time Indy 500 winner with some ease. There would be no "Mario is slowing down" lore.
As a fan, it makes things more predictable, and in a race with few overtakes (most F1 faces, increasingly many IndyCar races) it's snore-inducing.
Were I an owner I would, of course, love this reliability because it creates far more cost assurance in a sport that is as expensive as fork. IndyCar added hybrids mid-season last year and they have broken down here and there. It spices things up when it happens, but owners hate it because they've grown accustomed to near 100% reliability.
Because the sport is expensive as fork, it is also likely that most drivers are trained to be conservative in overtaking. No need to mess with that cost assurance with a foolhardy dive into a corner to make a bold move.
So you get a sport based on pit strategy under-cuts and over-cuts, which is smart, and in-laps and out-laps, which takes real driver skill, but is not exactly the most compelling shirt for the casual customer. Nor easy to ascertain in real time even if you do understand the principle of it, unless you have telemetry at your fingertips, which most besides the die-st of diehards don't bother with.
You wonder though that for all of the reliability and cost assurance there is with mostly bulletproof engines and conservative passing? How much money is trickling out the door anyway because the races themselves aren't as compelling?
NASCAR's solution to this - unspoken or spoken behind closed doors - is to gimmick and crash it up as much as is humanly possible. While I find NASCAR largely unwatchable in its current form (definitely didn't feel that way in the pre-playoff era, I loved the marathon aspect of both the races themselves and the championship), I understand why they do it.
They're too damn reliable.
Gone are the days where someone might dominate, but lose the race anyway because they blew an engine or had some other failure. If Mario Andretti raced these days, he'd be a four-time Indy 500 winner with some ease. There would be no "Mario is slowing down" lore.
As a fan, it makes things more predictable, and in a race with few overtakes (most F1 faces, increasingly many IndyCar races) it's snore-inducing.
Were I an owner I would, of course, love this reliability because it creates far more cost assurance in a sport that is as expensive as fork. IndyCar added hybrids mid-season last year and they have broken down here and there. It spices things up when it happens, but owners hate it because they've grown accustomed to near 100% reliability.
Because the sport is expensive as fork, it is also likely that most drivers are trained to be conservative in overtaking. No need to mess with that cost assurance with a foolhardy dive into a corner to make a bold move.
So you get a sport based on pit strategy under-cuts and over-cuts, which is smart, and in-laps and out-laps, which takes real driver skill, but is not exactly the most compelling shirt for the casual customer. Nor easy to ascertain in real time even if you do understand the principle of it, unless you have telemetry at your fingertips, which most besides the die-st of diehards don't bother with.
You wonder though that for all of the reliability and cost assurance there is with mostly bulletproof engines and conservative passing? How much money is trickling out the door anyway because the races themselves aren't as compelling?
NASCAR's solution to this - unspoken or spoken behind closed doors - is to gimmick and crash it up as much as is humanly possible. While I find NASCAR largely unwatchable in its current form (definitely didn't feel that way in the pre-playoff era, I loved the marathon aspect of both the races themselves and the championship), I understand why they do it.
PCLoadLetter
Well-Known Member
The frustrating thing is, that race had a lot of promise. Very close qualifying times with a surprise pole. Oscar vs Lando. Verstappen suddenly more competitive than expected. A damp track with the threat of more rain. Tsunoda vs Lawson. Doohan vs the walls.
And, we got nothin'. shirt happens. On to next week.
And, we got nothin'. shirt happens. On to next week.
NASCAR engines are also too reliable. Seeing five or six guys blow engines in 500-mile races showed that the talent factor wasn't limited to the driver. Nowadays with one engine shop for each manufacturer (I guess Chevy in theory has two, but they share data and whatnot) it's boring. There was damn near pandemonium last year when Christopher Bell lost a cylinder coming to the finish at Gateway. I bet most modern NASCAR fans hadn't seen anything like it. And because he has skill he was still able to nail down a top-10.
maumann
Well-Known Member
RIP, Shigeaki Hattori. Damn, only 61. Lost his CART license because he way in over his head in champ cars. But found success as an owner.
franticscribe
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2005
- Messages
- 3,957
I feel bad about the rolling chicane jokes I used to make during his CART and IRL days. I didn't realize he had gone on to ownership in NASCAR. His death reminds me of how there was a significant influx of Japanese drivers in the late 90s/early 00s into IndyCar, which in retrospect makes sense after Hiro Matsushirta had managed to maintain a ride throughout the 90s, but I'm guessing it was also fueled by the split and the need for more teams/drivers.
At the time, I was a teenager starting to develop a better understanding of racing. Most of my knowledge came from hanging out at a buddy's house where they watched Indy racing with the kind of fervor you typically see in NFL fans. My buddy's stepdad owned a car dealership and a lot of the friends and neighbors who would come to their house to watch the race were well-to-do rednecks. I realize in retrospect that I heard a lot of horribly racist comments about the Japanese drivers in those years, and internalized a good bit of it. I thought about those old fools when Takuma Sato won the 500 for the first time. A small part of me wished I was still in touch with them so I could enjoy their disbelief.
Not much to do with Hattori except he was a big part of that wave of drivers coming over and that he was more consistently in the field than most of the others and he seemed to be less of a vanity ride, like Matsushirta.
2muchcoffeeman
Well-Known Member
OK.
The Medusa ransomware gang has added another high-profile name to its growing list of victims. Earlier today, the group listed NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) on its dark web leak site, demanding a $4 million ransom and threatening to release internal data if payment isn't made. Alongside NASCAR, the group is also claiming McFarland Commercial Insurance Services, Bridgebank Ltd, and Pulse Urgent Care as new victims.
As seen by Hackread.com, the hackers have already posted 37 document images related to NASCAR as proof. A review of one of the blurred images shows a mix of corporate branding materials, facility maps, spreadsheets with employee contact details, and what looks like internal notes and photographs.
A quick analysis of the leaked documents suggests some of the content includes detailed maps of raceway grounds, email addresses, names and titles of staff, and credential-related info, which suggests a real compromise of operational and logistical data.
The Medusa group was first spotted in the wild back in 2021, but its activity has picked up speed over the past couple of years. One of its better-known attacks was against the Minneapolis Public Schools district in 2023, where the group leaked sensitive student and employee data after a $1 million ransom demand went unmet. They've also targeted hospitals, telecom firms, and municipalities, often dumping large amounts of internal files when ransoms aren't paid.
More recently, Medusa made the news just a couple of weeks ago for using stolen digital certificates to disable anti-malware tools on infected systems. That tactic, which was flagged in a March 25 report, allowed them to operate within networks and avoid detection.
hackread.com
The Medusa ransomware gang has added another high-profile name to its growing list of victims. Earlier today, the group listed NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) on its dark web leak site, demanding a $4 million ransom and threatening to release internal data if payment isn't made. Alongside NASCAR, the group is also claiming McFarland Commercial Insurance Services, Bridgebank Ltd, and Pulse Urgent Care as new victims.
As seen by Hackread.com, the hackers have already posted 37 document images related to NASCAR as proof. A review of one of the blurred images shows a mix of corporate branding materials, facility maps, spreadsheets with employee contact details, and what looks like internal notes and photographs.
A quick analysis of the leaked documents suggests some of the content includes detailed maps of raceway grounds, email addresses, names and titles of staff, and credential-related info, which suggests a real compromise of operational and logistical data.
The Medusa group was first spotted in the wild back in 2021, but its activity has picked up speed over the past couple of years. One of its better-known attacks was against the Minneapolis Public Schools district in 2023, where the group leaked sensitive student and employee data after a $1 million ransom demand went unmet. They've also targeted hospitals, telecom firms, and municipalities, often dumping large amounts of internal files when ransoms aren't paid.
More recently, Medusa made the news just a couple of weeks ago for using stolen digital certificates to disable anti-malware tools on infected systems. That tactic, which was flagged in a March 25 report, allowed them to operate within networks and avoid detection.
Medusa Ransomware Claims NASCAR Breach in Latest Attack
Follow us on Blue Sky, Mastodon Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn @Hackread
hackread.com
maumann
Well-Known Member
heck, make me a decent offer and I'll sell you a gently used 2012 NASCAR Cup Series media guide with everyone's PR and media contact information. I'm certain none of them are out of date. Like mark.aumann@turner.com, for instance.
Since Turner hadn't eliminated my work e-mail when I was rehired in 2013, I'm guessing it's just piling up with Phoenix International Raceway press releases, 12 years later. (For some reason, PIR couldn't get me off their mass mailing list, even though I requested it multiple times.)
Since Turner hadn't eliminated my work e-mail when I was rehired in 2013, I'm guessing it's just piling up with Phoenix International Raceway press releases, 12 years later. (For some reason, PIR couldn't get me off their mass mailing list, even though I requested it multiple times.)
Similar threads
Latest posts
-
-
-
Pat McAfee gets multi-year deal worth $30 million annually- Latest: outofplace
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
